Thirty-five year old Nuraini was heavily pregnant when the tsunami hit her small community on the west coast of Sumatra. Although injured by floating debris, she managed to survive. A month later she gave birth on a dirt floor under a tarpaulin shelter in a refugee camp, without the assistance of a midwife or doctor. Luck was with Nurani; she and her baby Tsunami Akbar are healthy. Sadly, other expectant mothers and newborns on the devastated west coast of Aceh are often not so lucky. Many doctors, nurses and midwives were lost in the disaster, and pregnant women must give birth alone.
On February 8, two Ubud-based midwives and their support team arrived at the isolated refugee community of Samatiga to establish a safe birthing facility for expectant mothers in the area. One of the many emergency projects of Aceh Aid at IDEP (AAAI), it will also provide basic midwife training, supplies and medicines to women and babies in the area.
Aceh Aid at IDEP, a joint project of Ubud-based IDEP Foundation and the Sumatran Orangutan Society, now has 18 projects in the field supported by donor funding. Although news of the tsunami has largely disappeared from the international press, the situation on the ground remains acute. The basic needs of many survivors in small communities are still not being met. AAAI is one of a group of small organizations and individuals that is working to reach these people and identify and meet their needs.
For weeks, generous donations from individuals, corporations and foundations have been pouring in to AAAI, and pouring out again just as fast to urgent projects on the ground in Aceh. By February 10, AAAI had received about Rp 3,024,000,000 (approximately US$330,000). Most of this has been disbursed since the project began December 27. A full accounting is now being prepared.
Three billion rupiah is a tidal wave of money, but it soon melts away in the face of urgent needs in the field. Since early January, AAAI has helped stock five private boats with emergency aid at a total cost of about one billion rupiah. This aid — food, medicine, tools and shelter - is being distributed to isolated settlements along the west coast and in many situations has been the first aid to reach survivors. A sixth boat is being stocked as this is written with goods, including livestock, that will be taken to the islands off the coast. AAAI received outstanding support from Ripcurl, Surfer Girl, Quicksilver and many other members of the international surfing/diving community to make these important journeys possible.
Other recipients of AAAI project funding are small initiatives by non-governmental organizations and individuals that are also bridging the gap before formal aid arrives. These projects include body removal, community kitchens, sanitation facilities, communications, digging wells and the distribution of food, medicine and shelters.
An AAAI field assessment team is now in Aceh visiting projects, networking with government and non-government organizations and researching a possible field post. Daily they report their findings and impressions by handphone and, as they move into areas without handphone reception, by satellite phone. They are evaluating project results, assisting with ongoing needs and identifying groups on the ground that are also delivering informal support. One of these groups is Green Camp, about 25 young Acehnese men who lost their homes and families in the tsunami. Beginning a few days after the disaster, they have been reaching isolated coastal communities on foot and on dirt bikes using forest paths and going overland. With the most modest equipment, mostly borrowed, they are opening up communications and setting up base camps in areas where other support workers have not yet arrived.
The AAAI field assessment team also plans to visit two projects in Samatiga, an informal refugee camp. On January 26, a team left Ubud to establish sanitation facilities for the survivors at Samatiga. Fifteen volunteers are digging pit latrines, teaching basic sanitation and providing counseling for women. The midwife team has now joined them after a difficult 20 kilometre journey from Meulaboh.
Team leader Robin Lim, who works at Yayasan Bumi Sehat in Ubud, made some strategic contacts in Medan en route to the field. The Indonesian Red Cross, CARE, World Food Program and Medicins san Frontiers pledged their support to the project. The Red Cross flew the team of seven from Medan to Meulaboh and helped to organize a workshop on safe birthing techniques for about 30 surviving midwives in the area to take place February 13. “There are thought to be about 5,000 internally displaced people at Samatiga,” Robin reports. “Only one other yayasan there is focusing on the needs of women. We will be providing pre and post natal care to all the women we can reach, with our teams of midwives rotating out every three weeks.”
Both of the AAAI project teams at Samatiga carried in high protein foods, water purification equipment and medicines as well as food, water and shelter for their own needs. The road between Samatiga and Meulaboh has been washed out in many places, and supplies must be taken in one box at a time on the back of dirt bikes.
Back in Ubud, the AAAI team smile at the picture of little Tsunami and his mother. It’s a potent reminder that their work is a bridge of hope between Bali and Aceh, touching many lives.
